Philippines

THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION

Commonwealth Politics, 1935-41

The constellation of political forces in the United States
that assisted in the resolution of the independence question
formed an odd community of interests with the Filipino
nationalists. Principal among these were the agricultural
interests. American sugar beet, tobacco, and dairy farmers feared
the competition of low-tariff insular products, and the hardships
suffered in a deepening depression in the early 1930s led them to
seek protection through a severance of the colonial relationship.
In this they had the support of Cuban sugar interests, who feared
the loss of markets to Philippine sugarcane. United States labor
unions, particularly on the West Coast, wanted to exclude
Filipino labor. A number of American observers saw the
Philippines as a potential flash point with an expansive Japan
and argued for a withdrawal across the Pacific to Hawaii.

In the climate generated by these considerations, Osmeņa and
Manuel Roxas, a rising star in the Nacionalista Party and
Osmeņa's successor as speaker of the House, successfully
campaigned for passage of the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Independence
Bill, which Congress approved over President Herbert Hoover's
veto in January 1933. Quezon opposed the legislation, however, on
the grounds that clauses relating to trade and excluding Filipino
immigrants were too stringent and that the guarantees of United
States bases on Philippine soil and powers granted a United
States high commissioner compromised independence. After the bill
was defeated in the Philippine legislature, Quezon himself went
to Washington and negotiated the passage of a revised
independence act, the Tydings-McDuffie Act, in March 1934.

The Tydings-McDuffie Act provided for a ten-year transition
period to independence, during which the Commonwealth of the
Philippines would be established. The commonwealth would have its
own constitution and would be self-governing, although foreign
policy would be the responsibility of the United States. Laws
passed by the legislature affecting immigration, foreign trade,
and the currency system had to be approved by the United States
president.

If the Tydings-McDuffie Act marked a new stage in
Filipino-American partnership, it remained a highly unequal one.
Although only fifty Filipino immigrants were allowed into the
United States annually under the arrangement, American entry and
residence in the islands were unrestricted. Trade provisions of
the act allowed for five years' free entry of Philippine goods
during the transition period and five years of gradually
steepening tariff duties thereafter, reaching 100 percent in
1946, whereas United States goods could enter the islands
unrestricted and duty free during the full ten years. Quezon had
managed to obtain more favorable terms on bases; the United
States would retain only a naval reservation and fueling
stations. The United States would, moreover, negotiate with
foreign governments for the neutralization of the islands.

The country's first constitution was framed by a
constitutional convention that assembled in July 1934.
Overwhelmingly approved by plebiscite in May 1935, this document
established the political institutions for the intended ten-year
commonwealth period that began that year and after July 1946
became the constitution of the independent Republic of the
Philippines. The first commonwealth election to the new Congress
was held in September 1935. Quezon and Osmeņa, reconciled after
their disagreements over the independence act, ran on a Coalition
Party ticket and were elected president and vice president,
respectively.